Sign of the Times: NYTimes First Video Obituary

The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Art Buchwald announced his own death in the first NYTimes video obituary: "Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died."

According to the newspaper:

"Last February doctors told him he had only a few weeks to live. “I decided to move into a hospice and go quietly into the night,” he wrote three months later. “For reasons that even the doctors can’t explain, my kidneys kept working.”

Refusing dialysis, he continued to write his column, reflecting on his mortality while keeping his humor even as he lost a leg. He spent the summer on Martha’s Vineyard and published a book “Too Soon to Say Goodbye.”

Art Buchwald died on January 17, 2007.

References:
Art Buchwald, 81, Columnist and Humorist Who Delighted in the Absurd. NYTimes.
Buchwald Announces Own Death In First 'NYT' Online Obit Video. Editorandpublisher.com.
Messages from the grave. CNN.
Link via KidneyNotes.com